When I first started talking to my J friends online they would sometimes go ‘ww’ or ‘wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww’ when we were talking about something funny. I really didn’t get this for a while and I looked online to find a definition…to no avail. I ended up just asking my J friend what it meant and hallelujah! I got an answer!

It’s basically the Japanese equivalent of ‘lol’.

‘To laugh’ in Japanese is ‘warau’ so when they find something funny or they’re basically saying ‘lol’ they’ll usually go ‘wwww’ or ‘ww’ or ‘w’.

Me and RICE having a convo on Skype – he says ‘ww’ A LOT!

I find it hilarious typing ‘www’ all the time because it doesn’t mean that much to me but it’s just funny to type and mean laughter.

You can say ‘ww’ back to people as well, it’s not like they think it’s weird if a foreigner does it. Foreigners from Japan, Korea and all over go ‘lollololol’ or ‘lmao’ all the time and they don’t have the word laugh in their language. Does anyone say anything? Nooooope, we just find it normal. So warau your heads off!! WWWWWWWW!

Firstly, just a little update on my life, today we had our exam results day. I got mine and I passed fair and square! Maybe not exactly the results I wanted but this is only year 12, I still have year 13 to improve! Anyway me and my friend planned to get some friends together and go to YO!Sushi in Leeds to celebrate, but since we all wished our grades were a little higher it turned into a comfort food session. XD

I got my friend to take a few pictures of us at YO!Sushi so you could see what the place is like. Here’s a few snaps:

Here was my first dish. God I love this, I think it’s the Beef&Garlic Teriyaki which is slices of premium beef glazed in garlic teriyaki sauce. I didn’t actually know it contained garlic until I looked at the online menu (to which I’ll post a link at the bottom of this post) but that’s probably what made the glaze on the beef so damn tasty! It’s served with little red chilli pepper slices (not hot at all from what I can remember), spring onions (I think) and a slice of lime that some people squeeze over the meal but I just sucked it…and then convulsed…ahh so sour. But OISHII! 🙂

I also had two other dishes; one was two large piece of sushi rolls and the other was a dessert called Doryaki which was just small little quarter pancakes with a bit of custard filling served with a raspberry sauce pot. 🙂

I also bought a green tea (free refills) for £1.15 (NOT BAD AT ALLLLL!) and then I just had to buy a glass of coke because I needed something cold. 🙂

*our table during the time we were there, got more cramped as the hour went on haha!*

These are just snaps of the little food conveyor belt. So easy to just pluck your food off and eat it nyaha! This is why I love YO!Sushi!

First photo here is of the cover of the YO!Sushi menu you’re given when you eat at the restaurant and the second one is the first page which shows you the different sections of the menu. It’s easy to manoeuvre around and explains everything very simply and easily. Cute! 🙂

Aaaaaand this is us after we’d eaten, clearly a happy bunch o’ squirrels hehee. That’s me doing the peace sign! *Asian style of course, how can you NOT at YO!Sushi?*

The food was amazing, not expensive whatsoever but extremely filling! The Beef&Garlic Teryaki filled me up really well, I almost thought I couldn’t eat anymore! Had to though, all too good, teehee. If you’re ever in YO!Sushi comment here and tell what you think! I’d love to hear your opinions on my favourite Japanese restaurant. I have yet to go to WAGAMAMA…shhhh…

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while now and I’ve finally got round to it. This post is all about androgyny and how it’s applied to the Asian race. For those who do not know what androgyny is it refers to having neither mainly male nor female physical characteristics making it, maybe, difficult to distinguish what gender someone is. *From this point on, I will be using phrases like ‘androgynous people’ and when I refer to ‘androgynous people’ don’t take it in an insulting way. Saying somebody is androgynous is not an insult but if you take it that way then fair enough. It is simply a term of describing someone who doesn’t looks insanely feminine or masculine.* You’ll have at least once in your life heard someone say ‘loooool looks like a girl’ or ‘paha that’s totally a boy though!’ when looking at an Asian. Comments like this usually come from people who don’t have the same interest in east asia as we do and if they do…they’re just trying to have a crap laugh and play the ‘dumb member of the group’. We shouldn’t go mental at comments like this though because, to some extent, these comments bring to light a decent point.

Some Asians are androgynous. But then again so are some westerners! Every country around the world will have a number of androgynous people. The point is mainly that Asia has a larger number of androgynous people than western et al countries. This is because westerners have a larger variety of physical characteristics e.g. blue, green, brown, hazel, grey, yellowy, maroony eyes, blonde, red, brown, black, thin and thick hair, black, olive, white skin with different tones, different muscle and boob sized, small and large curves and many, many, many body shapes from pear and apple to hourglass. The Asian race tends to have a smaller variety and more of the same little details such as thinner and shorter eyelashes, sparse eyebrows, monolids, black/dark brown eyes, black straight hair, petite or slender frame and usually less obviously different body types. Of couuuurrsssee Asians have different physical features, they don’t all have monolids, they don’t all have sparse eyebrows, some are muscly, some are more slender, some are short and some are tall. But the fact remains that westerners have a bigger variety of physical features – everybody clearly looks different and many Asians may look very similar. To us.

In a summarised paragraph; Asians tend to have less defined features. The Asian nose, many want it taller and thinner and more defined, monolids, many want double lids to make their eyes more defined. I’ve come to the conclusion that their natural faces are a perfect basic base. The Asian race was the first race after all, western features came afterwards. So their faces are the base, perfect for adding definition onto and not looking overdone which is why many Asian girls and guys can look amazing when wearing makeup. They can apply eyeliner and mascara and not have too heavy-an-eye. You could think of western features as natural makeup – but I don’t particularly want to think of it that way. The fact that Asians tend to have a clean basic-featured base kind of face, which is naturally so beautiful, means that any definition which would usually show a lot of femininity or masculinity isn’t really always there.

E.g. Westerners can have naturally long thick eyelashes which can give off a feminine look. An Asian may not have this physical trait.

*I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you all that I am not, not, NOT generalising a whole race, I am not saying all Asians fall into these characteristics and I am not saying one race is more naturally beautiful than another. Everybody is different. I am simply saying that these are just features mainly found in the Asian race and that westerners tend to have a bigger range of physical characteristics.*

The image at the top of this post is of the main character of the Taiwanese drama series Hanazakarino Kimitachihe, Lu Rui Xie played by Ella Chen. This drama is the first of quite a few versions of the series which is about a high school girl who sees a high jumper one television who she’s been inspired and influenced by, she disguises herself as a boy and moves to Taiwan to his all-boys-school where she stays and develops a friendship with him and other members of the school. She passes as a guy so well it’s unreal but when she stops and dresses like a girl my god she’s beautiful!

*It’s an amazing series I really want to watch it again! Awhhhh! What I’ve just told you is only a small fraction of the whole series which is quite a lot of episodes long! Watch! It’s brilliant!*

This picture is just one example of how much a girl can pass as a boy if she’s androgynous. This is why a lot of Asian cross-dressing or disguising-as-the-opposite-sex dramas are so successful, because they could actually pull it off if they wanted to. Look at Taemin from SHINee (Korean boy group).

OFFFFT SEXY TAEMIN MANLY HOT HOT HOT

and then…

Oh my god. What a guuurl! How his legs suit shorts…gawd…

So as you can see Taemin could pretty much be the most convincing transvestite ever if he wanted to be. The androgynous look is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to insult someone with and certainly nothing that people should really comment on. Firstly, it sounds ignorant when someone looks at an Asian idol or just a random boy sometimes and say ‘erm no that’s a girl’ and secondly it’s impolite! It may not be anything to be ashamed of but people don’t want to hear that they look like a boy or a girl every day. Their looks shouldn’t matter when determining your opinion of them.

Now I did get some thoughts from people close to me on what you should do if you can’t tell someone’s gender. I think it’s instinct and common sense here. If you’re stuck in a conversation with an androgynous person, ask subtle questions that should reveal their identity. ‘Do you think blah blah is cute?’ ‘Don’t wear heels tomorrow haha!’ or how about ‘What’s your name?’ nyahahah!

Anyway I just wanted to get across the point that nobody should turn around and argue that people are being rude and closed-minded when others say Asians are androgynous because it’s not wrong. Most of them are, and it’s not a bad thing at all! The Asian race can do many things with their natural looks. They can define themselves even more, they can stay natural and they can even disguise themselves successfully as another gender! Why would this ever be a bad thing 🙂

Helluuu! I am back from camping and, yes, the post on androgyny will be up soon but since I only got back today I am absolutely shot at, therefore, it will be a few more days before I upload the post. It’s 22:39 and my eyes are like ‘let meh slep’ but I’m like ‘NO!’ This is of course going to be a post related to Japanese if you hadn’t already guessed from the photo above. Yesterday afternoon whilst camping my mum came back from a walk to a nearby village with her friend we were camping with whilst they left us to ‘tent-sit’ (i.e. sleep for 2 and a half hours). She had bought me this book she’d found in Oxfam, we love our charity shops, and said she’d found it for 99p. My god it’s good!

This is the back of the book which is just the blurb, have a read.

They have a ‘How To Use This Book’ section right at the beginning which is always helpful if you want to get the best out of it. It covers basic pronunciation and info on how the phrases/words are set out and politeness.

What the contents looks like. There is of course also an index.

Basically just an example of what the start of each chapter looks like. This is chapter 2 which covers anything you may need to know in Japanese in order to converse sufficiently before, during an after a plane journey.

Finally, this is an example of the next page which is the main part. The first column is the English word or phrase, the second is the word or phrase in Romanization and the third column is the word or phrase written in Japanese. It is set out like this for all chapters and a lot of these pages may have extra little notes at the bottom of word endings or how polite something is etc etc.

This book is really interesting. I stayed inside the tent for about an hour and a half just flicking through it, it’s not designed to help you become fluent in Japanese whatsoever it’s just designed to assist you in surviving certain situations and understanding what people are saying to you in Japanese. It’s more about travelling around in Japan so for people who are tourists, tour guides or anyone who works and travels in Japan but doesn’t know much Japanese at all, this book is great to quickly whip out and assist you. It’s called ‘The Easy Interpreter’ by Yoko Pinkerton and Masumi Hiraga.

Awesome. NOW, who likes my nails?

I wanted something free and happy to look at, especially after camping in the rainy valley,so the sky and a bumble bee sounded nice! Yep, I did get this from Bubzbeauty! Na-night!

Everyone! I’m going camping for the weekend but we’re setting off tomorrow (Friday) and staying there till Sunday! My next post will be on the androgyny of Asians which is something I’ve been planning to write for a while and it is also related to my comments on the lead singer of Sekai no Owari! I’ll have other peoples thoughts on it, English (and foreign) and also thoughts from other Asians on the topic. Look forward to it and it will be up on either Monday or Tuesday next week! (:

This post is going to be a quick review of a song my Japanese friend RICE sent me. (:

This song is called ‘Starlight Parade’ (スターライトパレード) by a J-Rock band called Sekai no Owari which means The End of The World. It was released in their 2011 album ‘Entertainment’ and I am OBSESSED WITH THIS SONG.

It’s just such…I can’t even find a word to describe it. I don’t know the word for these types of songs! It’s something I want to listen to under the stars at night either on top of a hill or in a fast moving car. It’s just one of those beautiful songs with a nice beat and awesome vocals – I love these types of songs that deliberately go off scale in the breaks/verses but it sounds just amazing.
At first I said it reminded me of Christmas probably because of the bells but now it just reminds me of beautiful yet epic nights, a lil’ bit of freedom yet part of an amazing collective (because of the ‘welcome to the starlight parade’ line) and…just Japan! It’s the only country that produces songs that get me emotional and feeling almost euphoric at the same time. It’s in NO WAY a sad song but it’s got this feeling which I can only describe as ‘welcoming you into an awesome place where you’re wanted and where you have the most epic time of your life’.
It’s something I can imagine being an ending song to a nice anime. (:

Now, the music aside, I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t in the least bit doubtful that the lead vocalist was male. The first time I heard this song was also the first time I’d seen the music video. It was the first song I’d ever heard by Sekai no Owari. It was also at the same time I was skyping RICE. I absolutely knew it was a male singer but his vocals and cute face had me questioning everrr so slightly even though I knew I knew I knew it was a man and the thing was I didn’t want to ask RICE to make sure because I didn’t want to risk making myself look like someone who can’t tell Asians apart (completely untrue but sometimes that’s the impression you can give off if you don’t ask in the right way). I was thinking to myself ‘god he’s cute’ but then I kept thinking ocassionally ‘okay don’t say that, don’t say that, what if it really is a girl, then you’ll be a lesbian’. I knew then he’s a man and I know now he’s a man but I ended up googling the band just to make sure anyway. And yep! He’s a guy! Thank god! This wasn’t like I was genuinely thinking it was a girl, I mean it’s pretty obvious he’s a guy what with what he’s wearing throughout the video, his stature etc. But there was a little bit of curiosity mainly due to his vocals.
*To anyone who is even the slightest bit offended by this please don’t be! It’s not some sort of insult towards the way Japanese guys or girls look, nor any other Asian, it was just me being slightly stuck in the middle. Read this post if you’re still thinking I’m a total turd in a wig.*

The video itself is great and since I looked at the English translation of the lyrics it seems to be just a nice song talking about experiencing the night sky with all the stars and how it’s like being in another world. Though at the end there’s a line ‘in this world that is now without you’ may suggest something else, I’m not too sure. Open to interpretation I suppose whether that’s someone dying and becoming a star or just someone not being there to experience this new world with you. Either way it’s a beautiful song!

First time hearing this I got feelings I hadn’t had in a long time, kind of like when I was further back in compulsory school like aged 14/15 and I didn’t really have anything to worry about and I could just watch anime constantly. The really nice warm feelings of experiencing what the characters experience either in song or anime and being able to actually forget about stuff in my own life and reality – that’s what I got from this.

Maybe it’s not for everyone but it’s definitely worth a listen. I really want to see them live! Looking online they’re doing a live event at Mount Fuji-Q theme park in Japan in October according to Wikipedia! It’ll be their first time hosting one alone. Ohh how I wish I was there! Hopefully I will be soon! (:

Unfortunately you can’t purchase this iTunes, Amazon, Yesasia etc as a download because…I don’t know! The only song you can purchase is ‘Take Your Way’ which is a collaboration between the main vocalist, Satoshi Fukase and another artist. I think you just have to be somewhere in Asia to purchase this as a download. You can however buy their single as a CD and their albums online! Just not the download. MEH!

Peopleeeee! The YESSTYLE offer for free shipping and 10-50% off on all items has been extended to the 8th of August!! http://www.yesstyle.co.uk/en/home.html this is the UK site, if you’re not in the UK change .co.uk to .com and you’ll be rolling. 🙂

I thank the lord for this offer extension because the t-shirt I couldn’t find a picture of (in my last yesstyle post) had actually been out of stock and they sent an email saying they’d give me my money back because they weren’t gong to stock it again. SO I’m taking advantage of this extension fully!! Get on there and buy your shiz!